Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter XXVI
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter
XXVI.
It is in the precincts of Jerusalem, then, that
punishments will be inflicted upon those who undergo the process of
purification,4417
who have received
into the substance of their soul the elements of wickedness, which in a
certain place4418
is figuratively
termed “lead,” and on that account iniquity is represented
in Zechariah as sitting upon a “talent of lead.”4419
But the remarks which might be made on
this topic are neither to be made to all, nor to be uttered on the
present occasion; for it is not unattended with danger to commit to
writing the explanation of such subjects, seeing the multitude need no
further instruction than that which relates to the punishment of
sinners; while to ascend beyond this is not expedient, for the sake of
those who are with difficulty restrained, even by fear of eternal
punishment, from plunging into any degree of wickedness, and into the
flood of evils which result from sin.4420
| 4420 [See Dean
Plumptre’s The Spirits in Prison, on “The
Universalism of Origen,” p. 137, et seqq. S.] | The doctrine of Geenna, then, is
unknown both to the diagram and to Celsus: for had it been
otherwise, the framers of the former would not have boasted of their
pictures of animals and diagrams, as if the truth were represented by
these; nor would Celsus, in his treatise against the Christians, have
introduced among the charges directed against them statements which
they never uttered instead of what was spoken by some who perhaps are
no longer in existence, but have altogether disappeared, or been
reduced to a very few individuals, and these easily counted. And
as it does not beseem those who profess the doctrines of Plato to offer
a defence of Epicurus and his impious opinions, so neither is it for us
to defend the diagram, or to refute the accusations brought against it
by Celsus. We may therefore allow his charges on these points to
pass as superfluous and useless,4421
for we would
censure more severely than Celsus any who should be carried away by
such opinions.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
